Hearing His Voice #180

He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness.

Daniel 2:22

A well-known hymn declares that God moves in mysterious ways, and it’s true. We don’t always understand what He’s doing—or when or why or how. But the overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that He reveals His mysterious ways to His people. We aren’t fatalistically relegated to ignorance. Throughout the pages of Scripture, God works in the lives of those who love and trust Him, while interacting with them along the way. It’s true that we may go through long seasons of mystery, understanding each turn of events only in retrospect. But for most of the people of faith in the Bible, God punctuated those seasons with words of encouragement, correction, or instruction. And usually those words were quite specific.

Think about it: Abraham went twenty-five long years between a promise and its fulfillment, not knowing for most of those years exactly how or when the promise would be realized. But each time God spoke, the promise—and Abraham’s understanding—got more specific. The same could be said of Jacob, Moses, and David. God rarely lays everything out up front, but He also rarely withholds all communication until the end. In between those two extremes, our interaction with Him is a process that unveils His mysteries piece by piece. And those who experience the greatest unveilings seem to be those who ask for them.

There’s a fine line between trusting God for the details (which reflects faith) and assuming He doesn’t want to talk about them (which doesn’t reflect faith). Finding a balance isn’t always easy, but it involves seeking revelation zealously while being content when God chooses to let some things remain veiled—without losing heart in the process. When the time is right, He will help you discover things that have been hidden in darkness.

Revealer of mysteries, no secret is hidden from You. You know every corner of every heart and every situation in this world, including mine. Let me never judge or limit the ways You speak or the secrets You reveal. Guide me in every way I need to go.